The Rolling Stones, The #4 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Five

 

(Continued from Part Four)

 

The group's album Let It Bleed topped the U.K. chart and peaked at #3 in the United States.  This song, the flip of "Honky Tonk Women", "was something I just played on the acoustic guitar, one of those bedroom songs," Jagger said.  "It proved to be quite difficult to record because Charlie couldn't play the groove and so Jimmy Miller had to play the drums," he continued.  "I'd also had this idea of having a choir, probably a gospel choir, on the track, but there wasn't one around at that point," Jagger said.  "Jack Nitzsche, or somebody, said that we could get the London Bach Choir and we said, 'That will be a laugh.'"  Yet that is exactly what you hear opening on "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

Let It Bleed to this point was the Stones' best album, selling over two million copies, and included "Gimme Shelter", featuring vocals by Merry Clayton.  

Jagger created the music while sitting in his London flat on a stormy day in 1969 while thinking about Chuck Berry music as he strummed on his acoustic guitar.  "There was this incredible storm over London, so I got into that mode, just looking at all these people with their umbrellas being blown out of their grasp and running like hell," Mick wrote in his book, Life.  "And the idea came to me...My thought was storms on other people's minds, not mine.  It just happened to hit the moment."

Another unreleased song that is among the best in their catalog, "Gimme Shelter" arguably features the group at the peak of its power and ranks high in The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

 

The title song, as the Stones tell it, came about because Richards' fingers began to bleed as he played acoustic guitar for hours while Jagger and an engineer worked on the drum track.  Richards overlooked the injuries and was intent on recording "Let It Bleed".

 

Here is one of the first songs that Richards wrote by himself, a love song to a gold digger, with organ from Nicky Hopkins, autoharp by Jones and acoustic slide guitar from Keith--"You Got The Silver".

"Midnight Rambler" is the tale of a home-invading ne'er do-well, made even more

creepy by Jagger's harmonica playing.  The group handles the constant tempo changes amazingly.

 

This song was written on that 1969 vacation in Italy when "Midnight Rambler" was also penned.  Wyman provided a biting bass line on "Monkey Man".

The Stones have always been two steps up and one step back.  What happened next was essentially five steps back.  For a concert at the Altamont Speedway, about 50 miles East of San Francisco, they hired the Hells Angels to provide security.  Dumb idea.  The Angels were far too aggressive and stabbed and beat one fan to death.  

The Stones released one of The Best Live Albums of the Rock Era*, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, which went to #1 in the U.K. and #6 in the Untied States, in 1970.

After a dispute with Klein, the group launched their own record label, Rolling Stones Records, and released the album Sticky Fingers in 1971.  The band recorded some songs for the album at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio while touring the U.S. in 1969.  The studio had just opened in May when four top musicians from nearby FAME Studios left to form their own company, and these next two songs both came from those sessions.  

Engineer Jimmy Johnson was one of the studio's founders, and Glyn Johns, the album's engineer, added overdubs in England, including the horns, but largely left Johnson's mix intact.  "Brown Sugar", another member of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* club, landed at #1 in the U.S., Australia and Canada and grabbed the #2 spot in the U.K.

Sticky Fingers soared to #1 in both the U.S. and U.K. as well as Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden and has now sold over three million copies.  This next song was recorded two years before, but it's release was held up with legal confrontations concerning Oldham.

Stewart bowed out of the session because he "didn't like playing minor chords".  And Jagger took Richards' song, supposed to be about missing his just-born son Marlon and regretting the time he had to spend on the road, and turned it into a story about a deteriorating relationship.   Jagger talked about the song (in the liner notes to the 1993 release Jump Back:  The Best of the Rolling Stones) as if he doesn't remember Richards' original inspiration:

              Everyone always says it was written

              about Marianne (Faithfull), but I don't

              think it was; that was all well over by then.

              But I was definitely very inside this piece

              emotionally.  This is very personal,

              evocative, and sad.  It all sounds rather

              doomy now, but it was quite a heavy

              time.

Richards brilliantly used a 12-string to bring out the melancholy feeling that was his original inspiration in "Wild Horses".

 

Andy Warhol designed the album cover for Sticky Fingers.  This song features Bobby Keys playing saxophone, Rocky Dijon on percussion, and Billy Preston on organ.  Keys and Jim Price (trumpet & trombone) joined the group for their 1970 European tour after the album.  The long sax solo on the end wasn't planned, but Keys kept playing while the tape ran and Richards loved it.  Enjoy "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?".

Jagger wrote most of this song before Taylor joined the group.  He composed the chord progression in 1968 while on vacation with Faithfull in Italy, and the two teamed to write some of the lyrics. 

At L.A.'s Elektra Studios, Faithfull sang the lead vocal and she released it the following year.  Nitzsche played piano, Ry Cooder was on slide guitar and Watts was the drummer on the track.  The single was banned and the label stopped circulation because of the drug reference.  

"I just liked the name, and loved Lou Reed's work, Sister Ray and Heroin," Faithfull told The Guardian newspaper in 2013.  "I liked the idea poetically.  I thought it was like Baudelaire, but the song doesn't glamorize anything.  It was a really interesting vision."

When Cooder and Nitzsche were in London to work on the soundtrack to Jagger's movie Performance, he asked them to record a version with the Rolling Stones.  Jagger has said the subject in the song has had an accident, though we do not know if that means he overdosed or if he had a car accident or other mishap and wanted the drug to ease the pain from his injuries.  This is "Sister Morphine".  

 

"[I] think a lot of Country music is sung with the tongue in cheek, so I do it tongue-in-cheek," Jagger said of the vocals on "Dead Flowers".

The group created more self-inflicted wounds in our next segment, but they were able to put together arguably the best album of their careers next.  You'll hear that in Part Six!

The Rolling Stones, The #4 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(Continued from Part Three)

Wyman said he came up with the classic riff of this song while goofing around on an electronic keyboard before rehearsal.  "Charlie (Watts) and Brian (Jones) began jamming with me and it sounded really good and tough," Wyman wrote in his book Stone Alone.  "When Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) walked in, they said, 'Keep playing that, and don't forget it.  It sounds great.'"  Wyman never received songwriting credit or royalties for the song, however.

 

The Rolling Stones released the non-album single "Jumpin' Jack Flash" in advance of their album Beggars Banquet, produced by Jimmy Miller, just the second Stones album to sell over one million copies.  It is another Stones song in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*, #1 in the U.K. and Germany and a Top Five song in every major country in the world.

 

The album was more typical of their early days in which they featured Blues numbers.  "Street Fighting Man" was an observation on the political protests of the era, inspired when Jagger went to an anti-Vietnam rally in London.  As Richards said, "Our generation was bursting at the seams."

Beggars Banquet reached #3 in the U.K. and #5 in the United States.  Whether or not one believes in karma, the Rolling Stones experienced all manner of bad juju after recording this song--read on to find out more about that.    Never released as a single, the chilling "Sympathy For The Devil" is one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era* and earns the group valuable points that earn them #4 for the last 65 years.

 

In "Stray Cat Blues", Jagger and company contend there's nothing wrong with having sex with minors.  Only in their world.

 

John Lennon inspired Jagger to write a working-class anthem in 1968, but Mick added a good deal of irony in as well.  "Salt Of The Earth" is one of the first lead vocal performances by Richards (his first was on "Something Happened To Me Yesterday").

 

We also want to feature "Prodigal Son", a song about a boy who returns home after going out in the world on his own.

 

Here is an atypical Stones cut, the atmospheric "Factory Girl".

 

The mournful slide guitar work by Jones here would be one of his final major contributions to the group.  "We were sitting around in a circle on the floor...recording with open mics," Jagger said in 1995.  "That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved."  Both Beggar's Banquet and Exile on Main Street were released at a time the Rolling Stones were writing and recording songs which reflected Rock's deeper roots.  Here is "No Expectations".

After hearing the music of Bob Dylan, Richards realized his lyrics paled, or as he put it, it was a "punch in the face".  Dylan's influence definitely rubbed off on this one, "Jig-Saw Puzzle".

The group filmed The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, which also included performances by the Who, John Lennon, Jethro Tull and others, at the end of the year, but the planned release was put on the back burner and not released until 1996.

Jones had pretty much left the fold at this time, with his drug use becoming a serious problem.  He couldn't get a U.S. visa, ruling out road shows there.  On July 3, friends found his body at the bottom of the swimming pool at Cotchford Farm, the Sussex home where A.A. Milne had written Winnie-the-Pooh.  

The Stones heard several guitarists auditioning before deciding on Mick Taylor, who was recommended by their old friend John Mayall.  Taylor was so good that he joined them for a free concert at Hyde Park in London two days after Jones died before an estimated 250,000 fans.  The show was filmed live and broadcast by Granada Television as The Stones in the Park.     

The concert also featured the live premiere of "Honky Tonk Women".  Whereas the recently departed Jones may have used finesse on the song, Taylor tore into it and was a good pairing with Richard's guitar work.  It started out as "Country Honk"--"We lived for a few days on a ranch where Mick and I wrote "Country Honk" sitting on a veranda like cowboys, thinking ourselves in Texas," Richards remembered.  "It was written on acoustic guitar, and I remember the place because every time you flushed the john these black blind frogs came jumping out."

 

One of the group's biggest hits, it topped charts in the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia and Switzerland and sold over one million copies, and is another of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

The Rolling Stones were firmly cemented in The Top 100 Artists* by this time, but the work in the years ahead that we will hear lands them at #4!

The Rolling Stones, The #4 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

In 1966, the group followed with the album Aftermath, their first album which included all original songs.  Jones' versatility added significantly to the album, playing sitar on "Paint It, Black" after George Harrison had played sitar on the first popular song to use the instrument, "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles.  The song was originally titled "Paint It Black" but Decca Records added the comma.  There are thousands of 45's that were issued by London Records and others without the comma. 

 

Jagger took the line "I turn my head until my darkness goes" from the book Ulysses by James Joyce.  The single reached #1 in the United States, U.K., Canada and Australia and is also included in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

The multi-talented Jones could learn how to play nearly any instrument quickly, having just learned how to play the dulcimer just before recording this song. 

 

 

The dulcimer is an instrument you play on your lap by plucking or strumming the strings.  There are two main types of dulcimer, a hammered dulcimer and an "Appalachian dulcimer", which feature a body made of mahogany with ebonized tuning pegs.  The group released the single "Lady Jane", a Top Five song in Germany.

 

Like millions of things you see on the Internet and social media which are simply not true, the conspiracy theory that this song is about Buddy Holly's plane crash is a complete fabrication.  The lyrics refer to a crash at sea; Holly's was on dry land, and the flight number was not 505.  For the uneducated who put out that theory, flight numbers are not normally assigned to private planes, and even if they were, Northbound flights, like the one Holly took from Mason City, Iowa to Mooorhead, Minnesota, get even-numbered flight numbers.  The Internet is a poor substitute for good books and good reading.  Stewart played piano on "Flight 505".

Jones played the marimba on this one.  Here is the highly underrated "Under My Thumb".

Both "Under My Thumb" and "Stupid Girl" were written about relationships Jagger and Richards had with girls at hotels.  "Obviously, I was having a bit of trouble," Jagger said.  "I wasn't in a good relationship.  Or I was in too many bad relationships," he continued.  "I had so many girlfriends at that point.  None of them seemed to care they weren't pleasing me very much."  Uhh....Mick.  Could it be that they weren't intent on pleasing you because you "had so many girlfriends at that point"?  No brainer there, buddy.  Here is the Stones' "Stupid Girl".

Aftermath topped the U.K. chart and hit #2 in the United States and Australia and has now sold one million copies.  Jones played sitar on this next one as well, which also features some great guitar work by Richards.  Keith explained the sound he achieved:

             The strange guitar sound is a 12-string 

             with a slide on it.  It's played slightly

             Oriental-ish.  The track just needed

             something to make it twang.  Otherwise,

             the song was quite vaudeville in a way.  

             I wanted to add some nice bite to it.  And

             it was just one of those things where 

             someone walked in and, look, it's an

             electric 12-string.  It was some gashed-

             up job.  No name on it.  God knows 

             where it came from.  Or where it went.

             But I put it together with a bottleneck.  

             Then we had a riff that tied the whole

              thing together.  And I think we over-

              dubbed onto that.  Because I played

              an acoustic guitar as well.

"Mother's Little Helper" rolled to #8 in the U.S. and #9 in Germany.

The Stones' concerts were increasingly drawing large audiences and in 1966, they released their first live album, Got Live If You Want It!.  

 

The following year, the band released the album Between the Buttons.  The band released one of The Top Double-Sided Hits of the Rock Era*.  A piano, a recorder, and a double bass provide the sublte background that enabled the raunchy Rolling Stones to pull off a ballad.  The flip (which we'll hear next) was actually the one intended to be the hit, but when it stalled at #55, attention turned to this one, which was the better song all along.  The Gold single "Ruby Tuesday" topped the U.S. chart and scored a #3 smash in the U.K. and ranks in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

"Buttons" earned a #2 rank in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K. and went Gold.  Keith wrote this one mostly on the piano, and there's an interesting backstory to the recording.  The group kept the side door open when two police officers came by.  In the hope of avoiding larger issues, Oldham distracted the two and convinced them to use their truncheons as percussive instruments on the recording.  You hear the police officer's contribution to the song at about 1:40 when the band instruments go quieter.  The other side of "Ruby Tuesday" is "Let's Spend The Night Together".  

 

It's impossible for anyone to imagine life as a Rolling Stone, one step ahead of the police, dark, frenzied, mobbed by fans and press everywhere.  Jagger and Richards did a good job of describing their state of mind on "Connection", which features a duet between the two in one of the first songs to feature Keith's vocals.  Also prominent is the band's defiance of the world that they became known for.

 

It was time for another compilation album, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), which roared to #2 in both the United States and the U.K. and was certified Platinum.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang backing vocals on this one, while Jones played oboe.  Richards originally sang lead on the song, called "Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Blue" at that stage. "Dandelion", sung by Jagger, reached #8 in the U.K. and #9 in Canada but fell short in the U.S. at #14.

However in February, police raided Richards' home and subsequently arrested Jagger, and Richards with drug offenses.  After that, Jagger, Richards and Jones vacationed in Morocco but Jones' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg left with Richards, and the betrayal of course chilled relations between Jones and Richards.

The Stones nonetheless enjoyed a successful tour of Europe.  But Jones' house was raided by police and he was charged with possession of drugs.  He received a hefty fine and was put on three years' probation with an order to seek professional help.  We don't think he ever did that.

The Stones released the album Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967.  You may not know that John Paul Jones, later of Led Zeppelin fame, arranged the strings for this track while working as a session musician. 

"She's A Rainbow" peaked at #3 in Switzerland and #9 in Canada and Australia but was another stiff in the U.S. at #25.

The album peaked at #1 in Australia, #2 in the United States and #3 in the U.K. and also went Gold  But the group and Oldham reached a mutual decision that he would cease being their manager as Oldham believed they were juvenile and immature, which they were.  

This song is an interesting write--about a dream where you wake up and realize you are in another dream.  It came about as pure happenstance.  Wyman was in the studio and the rest of the band was late for a recording session.  Oldham asked Bill if he had anything written he would like to record.  Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane of Small Faces sang backing vocals, with Marriott also playing 12-string guitar.  Jones accompanied on mellotron while Hopkins played harpsichord.

 

"In Another Land" not only is the only Stones recording to feature Wyman on lead vocals, but was the lead single from the album.

 

This is the B-side to "She's A Rainbow" above, and according to the Davis book Old Gods Almost Dead:  The 40 Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones, Jagger wrote it while in a Brixton prison (South of London).  The group recorded "2000 Light Years From Home" at Olympic Studios in London in July and September of 1967.

The volume of great material is astounding.  Much more to come from The #4 Artist*!